How2Day: Small Wind Turbine Companies

Three of the World's top five small wind turbine makers are in the U.S. wind turbine image by redrex from Fotolia.com
The American Wind Energy Association 2010 report estimates the U.S. market for small turbines grew 15 percent in 2009 with 10,000 turbines installed worth $82.4 million in sales. Of those, 15,500 were off-grid systems and 95 percent of all systems sold were made by U.S. companies. In fact, 36 percent of the world's 250 wind turbine companies are based in the United States and 3 of those are among the world's top 5 largest turbine manufacturers.

Southwest Windpower based in Flagstaff, Arizona, is the world's leading manufacturer of small wind turbines. Established in early 1987, the company developed a small, 300-watt wind generator made from a Ford alternator. The company introduced their 400-watt Air-403 in 1998 and shipped more than 12,000 units by 1999. In 2008, the company developed a joint venture in China, with Ningbo Air-Yunsheng Wind Turbine, Inc., to produce the 400-watt Air X wind turbine with a 46-inch rotor, capable of producing 38 kilowatts per month from a 12-mph wind. Their other turbines range from the Whisper 100, a 100 kWh-per-month unit with a 7-foot rotor, to their Whisper 500 with a 15-foot rotor that produces 538 kWh-per-month. Today, more than 50,000 of the company's wind turbines are used around the world.

Norman, Oklahoma-based Bergey Windpower is the world's fifth-largest small turbine manufacturer. The company got its start as an experiment at the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s. After designing three experimental wind turbines, researchers developed a number of technologies including airfoils, blade pitching, rotor speed controls and low-speed alternators that resulted in several patents in the late 1970s. The researchers involved formed BWC and introduced their first commercial 1-kW wind turbine in 1980. Today, Bergey's BWC XL-1 has a rotor diameter of 8 feet and a power output of 1.3 kW watts for use at off-grid homes, communication sites and rural electrification projects in developing countries. The 10-kW BWC EXCEL, introduced in 1983, uses a 23-foot rotor and has been installed at over 1,800 sites around the world.

Founded in the mid-1920s, Minnesota-based Wind Turbine Industries is one of the oldest and well-established companies in the small wind turbine field. Since its acquisition of Jacobs wind energy in 1986, the company's wind power systems have been described as the "Cadillac" of the wind turbines. The company manufactures five models ranging from a 10-kW turbine with a 23-foot rotor, to the 20-kW Jacobs 31-20 with a 31-foot rotor.

German-based Superwind's 350-watt micro turbines are a favorite for yacht owners, as well as RVs, summer cottages and mountain shelters that use 12 or 24-volt appliances, TVs, radios, transmitters or navigational aids. In 2009, the company introduced their Silent Power Blades, which can be added onto existing systems and cut rotor noise in half.

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